BRANCHES OF THE POULTRY BUSINESS 37 



ness and there is so little profitable sale until the 

 breeder has made himself more or less conspicuous, 

 either by winning prizes at fairs and poultry shows 

 or by advertising, that it is much wiser to follow one 

 or more of the market poultry lines where the de- 

 mand is constant, and to select breeding stock of 

 standard requirements as a side line. Unquestion- 

 ably there is plenty of money to be made in raising 

 fancy poultry, but there is better opportunity for 

 the beginner, within reasonable time, in the market 

 branches. Whoever goes into poultry raising for 

 profit will find it to his best interest to begin with 

 market stock, to breed and select toward a high 

 ideal of production and let the combination of fancy 

 poultry for exhibition, etc., follow as a postscript, 

 if it follow at all. 



DUCKS 



As a general thing it will not pay the ordinary 

 farmer to go into duck raising on an extensive 

 scale. If his local market, however, is not oversup- 

 plied he may raise from a few score to a few hun- 

 dred, provided his place is adapted to raising ducks. 

 But duck farming, as a branch, is a business for the 

 specialist, and unless carried on very extensively, 

 is not likely to prove profitable. To be sure, there 

 are numerous duck farmers who are making money, 

 but the margin of profit in green ducks, that is, 

 ducks sold at about ten weeks old, is very small. 

 The business demands skilled labor in feeding and 

 dressing. Ducks not economically fed cannot be 

 profitable, nor can poorly dressed ones be sold to 

 advantage. These two facts make the duck busi- 

 ness particularly advantageous to the specialist and 

 disadvantageous to the general farmer. 



